Clay Clocks Tick Back
by Jojiro
Summary: Art is a bang in a life filled with regrets. Then Deidara is sent back in time by Manda, and everything changes. Deidara-centric time travel. Rated T for language. Pairings later. Deidara vs. Manda up!
1. Tick

Disclaimer: What I own is largely scrap paper and schoolbooks. I do not own any Naruto characters.

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Clay Clocks Tick Back

Chapter One: Tick

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When Deidara was young, his village despised him because of his kekkei-genkai. It had always been a curse to have hands on his palms. He remembered being thrown out of his house after a heated argument between his parents.

"He's too young!" his mother had said. The only words spoken in his defense weren't a defense at all…even she wished to be rid of him; it was just his age that swayed her morals.

"We keep suffering because of the damn monster…" "Our bills are increasing…" "And he wants to spend more on clay!" "Nobody wants to be associated with us any more…we'll have to move to the next town."

Nothing really changed afterward; it was just a sifmple matter of changing the plural to the singular. Even elementary school children could do that.

"My family threw me out…" "I can't pay the bills, yeah." "Do you have any clay to spare, hm?" "I don't have a family, hm. What's that to ya?"

They recognized him for having potential as a shinobi when he exhibited his earth affinity. Tunneling for infiltrations. Explosions for sabotage. He was never allowed to be part of the 'circle' though: his countryside dialect of "-hms" and "-uns" made him the primary target of abuse from his fellow shinobi.

In the Third Great War, he was sent out to the battlefield, expected to die as cannon fodder.

He survived.

In the aftermath, he was loathed even more. Civilians saw him as one of the shinobi who had failed in the quest to crush the Leaf. Other Rock shinobi remembered him as the one who had never socialized, and made snide suggestions that he was a slacker, a dreamer, and (when they were drunk enough) a traitor.

Deidara's art helped him survive in the so-called "peacetime." He sold clay lamps, sculptures, and assorted pottery; whatever the cruel local populace needed, he made. His childish face and plaintive voice helped him with his sales, though people never forgot that he was a monster. He would count his profits, and then he would move on.

He didn't need to stay to watch the explosions. Hearing them was enough.

He didn't know how old he was or when his birthday was, but Deidara placed himself at twelve when he was labeled a missing-nin, and within three years he was forcefully inducted into the Akatsuki.

He hated every single one of them, from the old to the new. Kisame was simply too bestial, too unsophisticated, and most importantly too obedient to the leader. Kakuzu was insufferable in his talks about money and his biting criticism of younger shinobi, since he was the oldest. Hidan was tolerable, but the fact that he lasted forever pissed off Deidara. "Everything should go out with a bang," he had shouted childishly upon being introduced to the immortal.

"That's fucking blasphemy, you son-of-a-bitch good-for-nothing fag."

It was ironic that Hidan _had_ actually gone out with a bang.

Asides from Itachi, Deidara didn't really know the rest of the members. But quite honestly, the hatred he harbored for the Uchiha was so great that it spread to the unknown members as well.

The _Uchiha_. Those hypnotic eyes _infuriated_ Deidara, and back when they hadn't gotten him a robe yet, he would attempt to murder the stuck up Konoha-nin in his sleep with explosives. The thought of those cursed, _unappreciative_ eyes being blown out made him even more excited than perfecting his C-3 sculptures. Deidara worked tirelessly to kill Itachi the few times when they actually crossed paths, but he was always casually knocked aside. Only once did Itachi deem him worthy of the Mangekyo, and that was because Deidara had attacked him with clay snakes.

The young artist made a note of this, and though he didn't know the snake sannin well, the thought that Itachi was uneasy of snakes directly because of Orochimaru gave Deidara a thrill. He made it a goal to try his hand at hunting the snake sannin down as well. Itachi was still at the top of the hitlist though. That fact would remain unaltered.

* * *

The only person Deidara truly respected was his Sasori-danna. The puppeteer might have been weaker when you measured the pure amount of havoc each man could wreak, but Sasori meticulously planned every aspect of every mission, and never went anywhere without the proper preparation. The man was another true artist, and Deidara appreciated that.

The first time he had seen Sasori out of Hiruko, he was too injured to appreciate the significance. He had entered the cave they were using as shelter, coughing up blood and on the verge of collapse after defeating two squads of hunter-nin by himself.

The lifeless eyes of Hiruko had shifted to him as he fell, unable to move another step as the combined effects of internal bleeding and poison took their toll. The rock-nin had been unable to see anything but the ground, but he heard a clicking noise that signified Hiruko had opened. He heard a shuffling of cloth and forced his head to shift slightly. A mop of messy red hair over an impossibly youthful face glanced down at him.

There was a sharp pain in Deidara's neck, the sound of a syringe being plunged, and he was suddenly paralyzed. He had never seen Sasori make a human puppet, but instinctively he knew this was how the process began. Rigor mortis to keep the body still, combined with a clotting agent to minimize bleeding while the body was hollowed out.

Sure enough, Sasori carried his limp form over to a makeshift worktable and took out some scalpels. It had hurt like hell.

Sometime in the middle of the operation, Deidara realized that he would not become another marionette. Sasori was spending more time twiddling with his insides than removing them. He would have screamed several times from the sting of chemicals if not for the first agent, which had locked up his jaw and neck as well. When Sasori was finished, he had simply stitched him back up and left to restock his supplies.

When Sasori returned that afternoon, he found a very pissed and no longer paralyzed partner waiting for him.

"Fucking use painkillers next time, hm!"

"…it was the first time I did that _without _turning the target into a puppet."

Deidara became silent and thoughtful. Sasori placed himself back in Hiruko.

Sasori himself never got injured, of course. For him it was always the mechanical process of repairing his arm, or his leg, or some other part of his wooden frame. If his one human part were to be injured, there would be no saving him. Painkillers were an unnecessary expense.

The second time Sasori had saved Deidara's life, the young Rock-nin had recovered much quicker, and Sasori found a clay moth perched over a very specific part of his chest.

"I was fucking serious last time, you damn freak! I'm not a fucking puppet, yeah, that you can just open up and stitch up like clockwork! If you don't refine your art maybe we could use one less artist in the world, hm!"

The third time he died and came back to life, it didn't hurt.

Deidara didn't ever thank his partner. He figured that if Sasori ever showed any interest in his explosive art, _then_ he might show more open gratitude for his partner's skills.

When Deidara heard the old hag and the pink-haired Konoha girl had taken out Sasori, he felt nothing. At first he was simply too surprised, and afterward missions killed all the grieving time he might have had. It was on the night after he had captured the Sanbi that his elusive guilt caught up with him.

The next morning, Tobi had come up to him with an intelligent, "There are red circles around your eyes; you look like a pand-"

Throttling the 'good boy' had never been so fun. And of course, Tobi was expected to drag the Sanbi for the good part of twenty miles before Deidara's clay birds picked up the slack.

Yeah, he'd led a good life. The life of a true artist, and a true shinobi.

* * *

Severe injury to his legs kept him from being able to stand up without wobbling and toppling over again. From his time with the puppeteer, Deidara knew his anatomy well enough to pinpoint the source of the pain. _Sources_, actually, but then he didn't have the time to deal with semantics. It was a pity, really. If he laughed maniacally _sitting on the ground_, much of the theatrical value would be lost. It would be a terrible and sloppy performance. Wildly gesticulating arms served as a good compliment to this kind of show, but both of his were in agony as well. If the mouths on his hands had vocal chords, they would be screaming their hearts out. He felt his diaphragm contract painfully as he prepared to laugh one last time. His gray eyes rolled back, and he turned his head up as much as possible without straining his neck. All for the sake of his last presentation, and then this drama would be over.

The two earthen snakes fell off of his opponent as Deidara coughed out a few giggles. _Weak._ These rapidly escalated to peals of mirth, until he was roaring uncontrollably at the sky in beautiful, unfiltered glee. He tried to get himself worked up, and perhaps to his disabled opponent his insanity would be close enough to the real thing to be passable. _It's just the beginning, you little prick!_ He thought, but there was a hollow feeling of surreality. _It's so close to the end._ His chest-mouth opened, famished and eager for a bite of clay. He complied with its wishes, tossing in a huge chunk of clay that had gone through multiple levels of purification. Within the fine white material was woven an intricate net of his chakra, in an amount equivalent to five times his normal reserves. For his cursed blood-born mouths, it would be a feast of feasts.

All for this one moment. He briefly considered a C-4 display to augment to his C-0, but it was a moot point: he barely had enough chakra to trigger the bomb he had just placed in himself.

Deidara let his gray eyes flicker to Sasuke's for a second, just to view the reaction that he knew would be there. The onyx pits were widening, fear finally appearing in their cursed depths; good, he recognized the danger that the purified clay represented. _He thinks I'm insane, _Deidara gleefully thought. _True enough._ He continued to laugh as he went through a few handseals, mocking Sasuke with how openly he flaunted the snake and boar signs common to all earth jutsu. As black streaks passed across Deidara's skin like liquid lightning, he growled in ecstatic joy. The pinnacle of all his achievements was about to be realized, and even if he couldn't take out Itachi with it, at least his bratty little brother would die!

Even in his jubilation, the mfore cynical part of his mind noted that given his low reserves, the explosion would be half a kilometer short of the planned blast radius, and the sillouhette of his body would be too blurry to recognize.

_Spilt milk._

He was barely able to keep consciousness as his body mutated into a pulsating sphere. At least he still had a mouth.

"C-0: Kyūkyoku Geijutsu!" And then he blew.


	2. Tock

Disclaimer: I neither like nor own any snakes. Therefore, Manda is not my property. I also do not own any terrorist artists. Therefore, Deidara is not my property.

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Clay Clocks Tick Back

Chapter Two: Tock

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Manda may have been called the King of Snakes, but even he knew the emotions of fear and uneasiness. And Orochimaru always made the King feel uneasy.

Unlike the toads, when the snakes finalized a contract, the ritual involved no sake. It involved instead the shedding of one's skin in front of the summoner. This was the ultimate height of trust, as any snake is most vulnerable while shedding. The summoner would then demonstrate an equal amount of trust. In the past, various shinobi had let snakes rest their jaws along a vital artery without showing fear, or they had taken a draught of the snake's venom, relying on the summoned snake to provide the antivenin. Originality was looked upon highly for this display of mutual reliance.

Orochimaru had been the first man ever to criticize his snake during the ritual. In a voice simultaneously silky and venomous, he had announced, "Your skin has a purple tint, Manda."

The statement itself had been a neutral statement of fact, but everybody who knew the pale jonin knew his partiality to the shed skin of the albino dwarf python. The snake king had been gravely offended, but his skin had been coming off of his mouth, so he had lost the opportunity to retort.

He had decided that he would also insult Orochimaru's contribution to the trust ceremony. He was so surprised that he missed the chance.

The jonin's ability at the time had been imperfect and messy, but the fact remained that he shed his body off. Manda remembered the feeling of simultaneous awe, disgust, and unease that he had felt, not unlike the feeling of swallowing something you thought was dead, only to find that it was still alive and squirming in your stomach.

Yes, the snake jonin had been surprise after surprise, each one unpleasant, rude, or both.

By the time the jonin had become a nuke-nin with the dual titles of Otokage and Hebi-Sannin, Manda thought he would never be frightened of anything again.

That was before he had met Sasuke.

At their first meeting, the huge python had been nonplussed by the brat's air of confidence.

"You expect me to serve this child, Orochimaru-_kun_?" There was a challenge in the question, and the honorific had been stressed with a threat behind it.

His answer had been a cold "kukukuku," and the python realized with a start that Orochimaru had summoned him from behind a set of iron bars, far away from where the snake and the Uchiha stood. He sensed a movement and quickly turned to the boy again. He had not intended to look at the eyes, but there they were.

The Sharingan had been turned on him, and Manda was helpless beneath the pinwheel of illusions. He broke free of one after another, only to find more layers of genjutsu and safety wards to keep him imprisoned in his own mind.

By the time Manda had escaped, he had a grudging respect for the boy. He didn't show that, of course, hissing his indignity and spraying venom, both in his speech and in the literal sense. The nonchalant Uchiha had walked away.

The ritual had been another unique one, and though he had readied himself for the unusual, Manda nevertheless did a double-take when Sasuke entered the ritual with his level-two curse seal and Sharingan running. Surely the brat wouldn't dare to _harm _him…nevertheless, the Lord of Snakes made haste to remove his skin, and his tongue flicked restlessly throughout, monitoring the air for any hint of thunder or fire chakra.

It was Sasuke's turn. The boy retracted his curse seal, turned off his Sharingan, and tossed his shirasaya high into the air. The avenger turned his back on the snake, and after a few tense seconds caught the shirasaya with his left hand.

Manda recognized the utter arrogance in the dance-like routine – it finished quite neatly the insult that Sasuke had started with their introduction: he could go from his strongest state to his weakest state, and he was still leaps and bounds above his summoned servant. There _was_ no vulnerability for Manda to see.

Strangely, Manda's anger had been completely overshadowed by an emotion he thought he'd left behind: wariness. It wasn't the boy's strength, for Manda knew that the world harbored many strong shinobi that could defeat him. It wasn't his arrogance or sure-footedness – those appeared in Orochimaru and Kabuto regularly as well. It was the utter cold that the boy's onyx eyes had.

People feared or liked pain, protected others from it or inflicted it upon others. Even Orochimaru fit neatly into that system of categorizing. Sasuke…simply didn't care. It was as if he were a detached god, always looking down at the ants scuttling below. It sent a shiver down the snakes elongated spine.

Add to that the memories of the last Uchiha that had entered and left Orochimaru's life, and you had reason why Manda was on edge whenever Sasuke summoned him. He could banter a bit with Orochimaru on good days, but never with the Uchiha. With the Uchiha, there was always the chance he was being summoned without respect, to be used as a shield or platform or even transport. With the Uchiha, he couldn't even imagine the master-servant relationship being changed into a cooperative one, much less reversed.

* * *

Manda knew the moment he was summoned that he was in mortal danger. Snakes had natural survival instinct, of course, but his certainty was founded on much more solid things.

For one, there was a huge chakra source next to his master. Huge, focused, purified, but _highly_ unstable chakra augmented by an almost manic killer intent.

As Orochimaru had been in the Akatsuki for a long time, Manda recognized the signature cockiness and impulsiveness that were trademark signs of Deidara's chakra. He did _not_ recognize the rage there. That was certainly new.

If all _that_ hadn't been enough to tip the snake off, there was the Sharingan. It greeted him as soon as he entered the human plane, and quite mercilessly proceeded to reduce his body to an obedient husk. The snake wasn't stupid. He was going to be manipulated as a shield to a devastating, possibly fatal attack. He FELT his hypnotized self open the mouth to let the disgusting gaki in. He FELT Sasuke's smirk through the brief spike in his chakra. He FELT the start of the explosion, and in those few precious seconds he made his decision to ignore the laws of nature and to just wing it.

The theory of bending time through summoning was actually fairly simple: the subject would be summoned in the summons' realm, in this case Hebikyokoku. The catch of the jutsu was that the subject would spend time caught in the limbo between the two worlds, thus causing a disjunction upon actually being summoned…this disjunction would be the difference in time.

All the strongest creatures from the realm of summons knew the technique, from the Kyuubi to Gamabunta, who had probably only learned it recently from the toad elders. It was just that none of them would use it, since the jutsu could only be used on somebody else, and of course there were moral issues surrounding how it would affect the current reality.

This was not an issue with Manda…he was selfish, and he knew that he would definitely die if he did nothing. All he needed to do was to trigger the technique. This was easier said than done as Manda struggled against the invasive haze the Sharingan had induced in his head.

A layer of the Sharingan's influence slipped off.

Deidara exploded.

That didn't matter much for _him_, the summoning would gather the artist's soul together and his body from the past would be a decent container. He didn't really need his current body.

It certainly hurt the snake, however. Manda couldn't even wince as he was hit by the burning force of Deidara's C-0. He had given up control of his body completely to distract Sasuke from what he was doing in his head. The damn boy was probably a bit disoriented already, no doubt trying to dismiss his summons from with the safety of its mouth.

Manda's scales came off, and the heat scorched his entire being with pain, pain that only added to his determination to finish. Had Sasuke noticed the sudden mental retaliation? No matter now.

"Send my regards to the past, you blonde brat."

Deidara disappeared. Time had been trumped by a snake's dying _ki._

* * *

It was funny. Manda had always wanted to be greater than the toads and the slugs, and now he had done it. There was no greater achievement than bending time, after all. He tensed as he found his target's soul in limbo. Deidara, the only existence there with a destination. Everything else was still present, but unless they too knew the time-travel technique, they would disappear as soon as Deidara re-entered the timestream. The fact that he couldn't feel pain meant the snake was already being unravelled by time.

_About...right...NOW._ Manda thought, and then everything truly disappeared.

* * *

To any snakes looking out that day, it would seem as if a blonde had just appeared out of thin air, his mouth forming the words "art is a bang" in his sleep. Then, he hit the ground, and all hell broke loose.

* * *

AN: That was exhausting to write. The time travel explanation, while cheesy, felt necessary. The double-spacer was to signify that time HAS been turned back. The snakes from the past are looking out from their holes, not the snakes from the old timestream, which is now irrevocably lost. A few random words I used that you may not get instinctively:

"Hebikyokoku"- Snake Canyon, the equivalent of Myobokuzan, just for snakes. It isn't a real place in canon, but I figured that each summons must have had its own realm, and the bijuu probably had a realm of their own too before they started destroying the human world.

"C-0" – Deidara's final technique was C-0: Ultimate Art.

"Gaki" – brat, child, used as a combination of affection and annoyance

"Ki" - life energy

Asking for some opinion out there (I know this isn't going to be popular until I get more chapters, but answer it even after I update more): How should I type out jutsus? English name, Japanese name, or just ignore the name and state what happens?

Sample 1:

"C-0: Kyukoku Geijutsu!" (Ultimate Art)

Sample 2:

"C-0: Kyukoku Geijutsu!" (no english caption)

Sample 3:

"C-0: Ultimate Art Technique!"

Sample 4:

Lines flashed across the artist's body as he exploded in his most artistic technique.


	3. Look at the Time

Disclaimer: Nothing is to be owned by me that is to be written by me, in this story, hm.

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Clay Clocks Tick Back

Chapter Three: Look At the Time

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The boy didn't glare at the snakes that slithered just out of range of his bombs, nor did he show any signs of fear. The scorched ground that he sat on didn't seem to bother him much, especially now that it was cooling. He just sort of sat there, meditating, completely at peace with the world.

As if that was fucking possible.

Deidara opened his eyes a crack, checking to make sure his ring of clay bombs were all still in place. He quickly shut them again after making sure. There was no need to look at the ugly, shapeless forms he had created. Each one resembled a bird or lizard or other animal, of course, but it was hard to see that when they were so lumpy, and he was fairly certain some of the last clay bombs he had made were starting to melt in the sun. Melt.

Good Kami, whatever had happened to a good, clean bang that he had planned at his end?

He heard a boom to his right. Probably one of the younger, more adventurous constrictors that had gathered there. He quickly prepared a replacement bomb. He felt the clay fall sloppily from his hands and felt another pull toward unconsciousness as his chakra waned. He quickly opened one eye to peek at his creation, and immediately wished he hadn't. The spider had seven legs and the head was larger than the abdomen.

This jutsu is the most twisted illusion I've ever been put under. I'm in a child's body, with a child's chakra, control, and stamina, in a freakin' world of snakes. Deidara had already stabbed himself in the leg with a sharp rock he had found, and the illusion had held firm. That was worrying. His highly trained right eye couldn't detect any of the inconsistent chakra patterns that came from genjutsu, and multiple other tricks to break out had been unsuccessful.

Also, he distinctly remembered actually blowing up into pieces. What, then, was this mess he found himself in? Was this some sort of hell? Had the gods analyzed his subconscious mind and decided his existence as a child in a realm of snakes was the worst punishment they could give to him for his sins in life?

So many questions, so little time. It would only be so long before the snakes realized his bombs were weakening and charged as a group.

"Blonde-haired one, what are you doing in the world of summons?"

Deidara's head jerked up. He recognized that voice…but it couldn't be, not here, and certainly not that polite-

Yellow orbs stared back at him from beneath purple eyelids.

"Manda," Deidara breathed.

He was a bit smaller than Deidara remembered, but the aura of menace was still there. The snake jerked back a bit in surprise, and its tongue flicked in and out multiple times in confusion.

"You, a human, know of me? The contract has only been made with one person, and you are certainly not that pale-skinned bastard."

Now it was Deidara's turn to be surprised, and though he kept on the mask of indifference carefully, his random chakra spikes resulted in several of his clay bombs sagging into the ground.

"You hate Orochimaru too?" Then the snake's other words sunk in, and the pieces of the puzzle all fit together.

He had been sent back in time! The fact that Manda disliked Orochimaru almost certainly meant he disliked Sasuke in the future (past?) as well. It was most likely that the summons had sent Deidara back in time as a favor. He would certainly return it if he could, even if the past (current?) Manda wouldn't fully appreciate it. Looking up at the snake, he wondered if it already knew the time-bending jutsu. It was incredible that such a technique existed. Deidara himself had heard rumors of creatures from other realms with the ability to alter time, but he had never believed them…

The snake's hissing brought Deidara out of his musings. He nearly took out a kunai, before he realized the reptile was laughing.

"Yes, it seems as if my summoner has many enemies. Though I am…amused that we share the same feelings on that matter, I must still demand to know how you arrived here and how you've heard of my name."

Deidara smiled as he stood up, drawing back the chakra he had given to all his clay bombs. At least now he wouldn't faint while addressing royalty.

"I was sent here by you, King Manda. Or are you still a prince?"

The snake reeled in shock yet again, and Deidara pressed on.

"It doesn't really matter, yeah. You will soon be king, or at least you're supposed to. In the future, you were manipulated by one of Orochimaru's disciples into being killed. Apparently, while you were being burnt up, you felt as if I could be trusted to fix the past. So ya sent me back to this place." He made a small gesture to his surroundings.

He had decided that for the time being there was no need to mention it was his technique that had killed the snake in the future.

The huge purple serpent blinked slowly at him.

"You speak with conviction, but I cannot believe this tale you tell." The large snake turned his back on Deidara. "You will come with me to my father - and yes, that means I'm a prince now - and tell your story to him. I am interested to see what he makes of it." He paused, and his tongue lazily waved in the air. Then- "I'm also interested if this time-travel technique even exists."

"It would be an honor to accompany you, Manda-sama."

Deidara could see that the snake prince was pleased by the respect, and he himself was somewhat relieved. Even if his story was dismissed as a lie, this snake could still be his ally.

* * *

The king of snakes stared through nearly sightless eyes at this human that had, possibly traveled back in time. He didn't look impressive, even through the film of white. The mop of blonde hair covering its head was just an obstruction to sight, and in Naga's opinion, it should either be trimmed or tied up in a ponytail. The child's scrawny body held little promise of physical power...to get any taijutsu under his control, this boy would have to go through ridiculous training. That left intelligence, determination, and chakra control, which were all he could test to see if the brat was telling the truth.

With these things in mind, the snake hissed out his first words since the human's tale had been told.

"Scale-less monkey of another realm and time, you must forgive me for not being able to see you. While shedding, we older snakes are nearly blind. I do believe your tale, as your description of what happened fits the jutsu…and the situation you described is certainly one in which I would have opted to use the technique, in hopes of repairing the past…the air does not taste of lies." Here, a pale tongue seemed to caress the air in front of Deidara, making him flinch.

Scale-less is not exactly the ideal way to be described, but I can't afford to be picky, I suppose.

"Naga-sama, I apologize for coming at such an inconvenient time. If you believe my story, then I have a request. Please send me to the human realm. I have various goals, yeah. They'll need doing soon."

There was a brief silence as Manda hissed Deidara's message directly into the king's ears, which were also nearly deaf as a result of the thick layer of shedding skin.

"It is not so simple, naked primate of another place and era." (This is getting old, yeah, Deidara griped in his mind.) "In order for us to properly dismiss you, or indeed for us to dismiss you at all, we must make a pact of blood, and we snakes do not take this lightly as, for example, the foolish toads do. Prove yourself to be worthy of a contract with us!"

Deidara winced a bit. A summons contract with Orochimaru's pets? It was-

"Distasteful? Do you find us distasteful, you bipedal fool who would not be alive if not for one of our kind?"

"N-no, yeah!" Damn the stutter. "Or rather, just no! I just-"

"DON'T LIE!" Naga's huge white body contorted as he let his rage be known. "My tongue tastes all your emotions, regardless of how well you think you can hide them!"

Deidara thought fast. Things were going downhill. Several vipers were already moving towards him, clearly with malevolent intent.

"I did find it distasteful," A loud hiss. "-but not because of you! I just have a bone to pick with that hebi-sennin, yeah!" There. That was the best he could come up with, and it was partially true, so maybe the king's uncanny sense of taste wouldn't be able to pick up the half-lie.

"Hssss. I see no reason not to join with this Orochimaru…he has more talent than any shinobi who has bonded with us yet. But I shall not begrudge you non-reptilian creatures for hating each other. It is not my business!"

Deidara watched Naga and his vipers warily. The writhing had ceased, and now the snake king was rearranging himself into a more comfortable, coiled position. The tongue was also flicking less frequently. He could only hope this collectively meant that Naga was willing to forget about his earlier rudeness. The vipers had not moved back, but seemed hesitant to attack.

Naga's mouth yawned open to reveal an impressive set of fangs. Two drops of venom fell from them, boring acid holes into the ground.

"You have still to prove yourself. If you can make two holes identical to those, I will accept you."

Eruptions of protests from the vipers.

"But that is such a simple task! It is simplicity itself for shinobi!"

"SILENCE! I-"

The snake king suddenly hesitated, and then began a fit of hissing and spluttering. The vipers, Manda, and Deidara himself were all very careful to avoid the acid drops of venom that ensued…and suddenly Deidara realized that the aged snake was very, very sick. After a few tense moments of wheezing, the elderly king managed to continue, though its speech had noticeably slowed.

"I…I provide tests…on the basis of age. He…cannot be more than ten, and if he has enough control to create two holes identical…to the ones I have created, then…he has talent."

Deidara was already molding clay in his hands. He recognized the tension among the other snakes as the same kind of frenzy mobs got into; if he failed the test, he would likely be killed.

Normally, of course, this was simplicity itself for him. His perfectly formed bombs would artistically cause the exact amount of destruction he required, small or large, often with shells of chakra as additional brightness and volume adjustment. In his childish body, however, Deidara was not so confident.

His earlier ring of bombs was evidence of this-though he could create the hand signs easily, a child's chakra flow tended toward the irregular and as a result both of his artistic hopes came out misshapen: the clay animals were molded incorrectly, and the explosions were asymmetrical messes of flame that were more alarming than destructive.

His hand-mouths ached as he forced them to chew the clay slowly, putting in chakra at regular intervals. His weak arms shook as the chakra moved through them. I'm probably only a genin at this point, hm? I'll have to put training at high priority. Otherwise I'll die even earlier than before, yeah.

Finally Deidara finished his creation: a twin-headed snake about the length of his arm. With a few seals, the snake split into two and burrowed dual spirals in the ground.

Wiping the sweat forming on his forehead, Deidara gave each snake a quick probe with his chakra. Excellent. The explosive side of each snake was directed to the inside of the spiral, so that when they detonated, the explosion would be controlled by a layer of earth chakra on the outside.

Deidara took a deep breath and pressed his hands together, preparing to say his signature "Katsu!"

As Jiraiya sunk another wave of Earth shinobi in a Yomi Numa (Earth Technique-Hell Swamp), he kept Orochimaru under his watchful eye. The snake-sannin had become more and more isolated ever since their defeat at the hands of Hanzo in the Second War. Would he be alright? There was a sound to his right and he cursed as he realized that most of the Iwa shinobi were escaping from his swamp. Stupid to expect an earth jutsu to work against them.

Tsunade threw an enemy's hammer at an approaching line of three Iwa shinobi. The force of the throw killed the two in front easily, and the last one was finished off by a senbon from an assisting leaf-nin. Tsunade smiled at her assistant.

"Excellent job so far, Shizune."

"A-arigatou, Tsunade-sama."

Huge snakes continuously erupted from beneath the plains as the Rock shinobi forced them out of hiding with earthen spears. Orochimaru snarled in frustration. His snakes were out of their element once tossed into the air, and with Jiraiya there he couldn't risk a kin-jutsu. That left him with Kusanagi and the strong but arrogant Manda. When he attempted to do a head count of his opponents, the snake-sannin chose the latter option.

* * *

In Hebikyokoku, Manda suddenly vanished with a bang. Deidara instinctively flinched at the noise and smoke, and in doing so released the seal.

A much louder boom sounded in front of Deidara as his two clay snakes blew up. He held his breath, praying to whatever gods there were up above that the premature release would not affect the quality of his art. As the smoke cleared, he barely made out the four cylindrical holes, indistinguishable from one another except that two of them were charred while the other two had melted edges.

Faintly, he heard the sound of rasping scales and hissing that could have been "you deserve the contract," but chakra depletion was taking his toll.

"Gomenasai, Naga-sama..." With that, Deidara's body went limp.

AN: Well, you're probably looking forward to Deidara actually showing up within the shinobi world, and for him to stop being so damn weak. I promise some of that will appear next chapter. I do apologize for the weakness, but he has been sent way back, even before Orochimaru has defected. I sent him back very much as a plot device to develop his personality into something less sadistic, not so much for him to fix the Uchiha Massacre and save the world before it even has any major enemies. I would elaborate, but that would ruin everything and exhaust my easily exhaustible self...so I'll trail off here...

"Gomenasai" - Fairly polite way of apologizing.

"hms and yeahs" - I've decided to alternate depending on which fits the occasion.

R&R, and I'm not telling you to go play Monopoly. XD


	4. Snake Minds Like Clockwork

Disclaimer: I'm Chinese. I have not been to an orphanage. I cannot own blondes.

* * *

Clay Clocks Tick Back

Chapter Four: Snake Minds Like Clockwork

* * *

Waking was always a pain for the shinobi artist. Deidara's ideal schedule, of course, would involve rising with the sun and sleeping as it set, making the most of the light that could best illuminate his work. Additionally, this sort of cycle would give his brain some much needed rest. Inspirations required a huge amount of mental effort. It was a pithy saying in Iwagakure: the more veins pulsing on a man's head, the more likely it was that he was being inspired.

Granted, this was generally a violent and rather unenlightening inspiration, such as hitting someone.

For Deidara, the artist lifestyle was impossible. He was a shinobi. They were supposed to live in the night, and their work was best left in the dark as well. So it was no surprise to him when he woke up that there was a great fat moon above him.

His brain did a quick rewind, and because it was logical, stopped abruptly at the time travel bit of his recent past. Though he'd accepted it, he hadn't really had a whole lot of time to mull it over, no thanks to the reptiles that kept testing him. How had it happened, and how far back had he been sent? Deidara propped himself up on one arm, noticing as he did that he had been resting on a huge, futon-shaped snakeskin.

A brief mental image of a futon-shaped snake formed, and he let out a chuckle. His voice really was a lot higher now, and now that he looked at himself, really LOOKED, he suddenly noticed details that made him groan. For one thing, as his fainting spell had indicated, his body simply couldn't sustain the chakra necessary for his techniques. At least that didn't seem to have harmed him yet; the test must have been successful. He had heard something along the lines of "and you deserve the contract," and the snakeskin futon wasn't exactly treatment he would give to failures, if he were a snake.

There was a big bruise on his back from his fall out of the sky that he felt, but it probably wasn't serious. It ached and the skin was tender, but he had hit some sort of springy plant before hitting a soft patch of earth, so there was no blood loss. The rest of him seemed to be relatively fine too, if he ignored the fact that he was a walking stick-man, a weakling, and a runt from lack of nutrition.

He felt a scar on his shoulder that he didn't remember getting recently. After staring at it for a bit, he finally recognized the mark. It was the branding given to genin during wartime, as he recalled. He seemed to remember something about "enduring pain" for the country when you became a "noble shinobi". Deidara snorted. Noble indeed.

However, the mark did help him place his age. He was ten, an early graduation age, perhaps, but that was what the war required. That meant about four years to his induction into Akatsuki, and almost nine years to his first death. If he could get to the human realm.

Satisfied with his placement in time, he moved his attention back to his limbs. They looked like deadwood, and fragile compared to what he remembered his arms as. It had taken him years to get up to par with just B-rank missing-nin in terms of physical ability in the last timeline. Now that he saw the contrast, he understood why. How much training would this body need before it could even begin to sustain the lifestyle he had had as a missing-nin?

A hiss brought him out of his musings.

_About time, hm_.

Standing cautiously, Deidara turned to face one of Naga's attendant vipers. He bowed, and guessed from his wakefulness that his chakra had fully returned. The snake, to his surprise, bowed back. He had been steeling himself for rudeness.

"Deidara-sama." Deidara's mouth actually started to open in shock. "You have passed the test, and the royal contract is now complete."

The snake paused. Deidara took the hint and closed his mouth.

"There is no higher honor. Naga-sama himself took care of it, and not only are you exempt from the trust ceremony, you are also exempt from the human sacrifices we snakes normally demand. You must understand that this is not normally done…it was clear that Naga-sama held you in high regard for your skill."

_Apparently falling unconscious didn't count against me at all, yeah_, Deidara thought. A_nd not only that, but a royal contract? I have a whole new repertoire of new techniques now. Though…why the past tense, yeah?_

"Naga-sama _held _me in high regard?" Deidara asked, feeling tense again.

The viper shifted in unease, and there was an awkward silence. Then, in a sudden burst of sincerity, it said, "The entire process took its toll on his Highness, I'm afraid. Naga-sama was already dying, and I believe he was waiting for a trustworthy summoner. In all honesty, he was a bit suspicious of Orochimaru-san as well, though he never showed it. We don't exactly have a good reputation with most humans, however, and…then you came. I would not have said this before, but I truly believe that Naga-sama sacrificed himself so that you would protect Manda."

Deidara shook his head, a queasy feeling in his stomach. He had planned to drop the respectful act as soon as he was out of this hell, but it seemed as if he had now bitten off more than he could chew. As he tried to contort his face into something that looked like sorrow, Deidara wondered who he could depend on now to send him to the human world. If he had to stay, then sooner or later all his frustration from showing this sickening respect would show.

As if reading his mind, the newly forthcoming viper said, "Manda is your best bet to return to your own dimension now, Deidara-sama."

And right on cue, Manda returned. Outraged.

* * *

Summons have connections to one another. It is a bit like a spider web, and in the case of spider summons, it often is. The main use of this connection being knowledge of when one of their number dies.

Manda did not recognize the feeling at first. It simply felt as if a part of his mind had left, leaving a bit of an awkward vacancy behind.

Time turned the vacancy into a sort of incessant scratching, until finally, with the same certainty that death and taxes carried, he came to the conclusion that his father was dead.

Suitable drama ensued when Manda returned. As snakes slithered away from him into whatever nooks and crannies they could find, Manda realized that his mood was radiating out as killing intent. He didn't even bother to rein it in as he snapped up a few of the less fortunate serpents around him, taking up huge chunks of earth as well.

"WHERE IS MY FATHER?" He roared, and to all of the uninformed snake populace in the vicinity, it would seem as if he had extreme indigestion, for his coils undulated spasmodically.

Since all of them knew about the connection as well, however, they tried to explain to the prince-turned-king. Their attempts met with failure. The first explanations that Naga-sama had passed away were cut off as the explainers were eaten.

In the lull as a second wave of snakes tried to find a safe distance, Manda's roars seemed even more frightening, though Manda was just trying to vent the sudden madness that had consumed his mind. If he had stopped and calmed himself, it might have been possible to resist, but the death of the snakes he had eaten only enlarged the gap in his mind that was slowly being filled with uncontrollable fury. Even seething, Manda still managed to hear bits and pieces of the conversations that the others were having in low hisses, and one word caught his attention. It was vaguely familiar, highly suspicious, and in many senses still absolutely foreign.

"DEIDARA!"

* * *

The Iwa shinobi stared at the seemingly insane snake prince, his face completely white from the bursts of killing intent. Breathing deeply, Deidara managed to get some color back into his cheeks.

"He's gone mad!" he snapped to the viper. It was really all he could think to say.

"He can't control his emotions, he's still too young – you must calm him!" hissed his viper attendant, who was even more agitated than he was.

Deidara supposed it was most similar to dealing with the Sanbi again. Huge amounts of power, completely zilch in the control department. However, this time he did not have a partner, and he was handicapped by a sudden deficit of nine years. A bit of an inconvenience.

Another wave of killing intent, this time more focused in his general direction, reminded him that he really didn't have too much time. Time to act then.

"Oi, Hebi-san!" He said, addressing his companion. "I'll need to borrow some of your chakra. How much do you have in your reserves?" Without waiting for an answer, he started making hand seals.

"You're going to FIGHT that thing?" the viper asked incredulously.

If Deidara had been aware of English literature, he might have said something along the lines of "No dip, Sherlock," but as it was, he had to make do by throwing his first creation at Manda and yelling, "KATSU!"

C-1 didn't track, but then again, with a target as large as life, it wouldn't need to. The clay bird detonated right above Manda's head, blinding it with light and deafening it with the loud bang.

Deidara didn't waste his time. He quickly created a bird he could ride on, ignoring the fact that the beak fell off the face, and prepared as many birds as he could with his current chakra. Once he was finished, he turned to the viper.

"Give me more chakra, I'm going to fly up for a while," he shouted, above the din of Manda. The viper's tail wrapped around his wrist, and he felt a strangely cold infusion enter into his body. It was simultaneously repulsive and refreshing, but it was certainly chakra. Jumping onto his beakless hawk, Deidara threw his second barrage at Manda. As they left, he took quick stock of the amount of clay he still had in his waist pouch. Barely any. Great…how did his younger self get by on just _THIS _amount of clay?

A series of three C-1 swallows alighted onto the snake's purple skin, each one erupting into – Deidara winced when he saw – blobs, but blobs with cricket legs. Manda roared again, having sighted the blonde shinobi, and spat a stream of what looked like mud in his direction.

Despite its lack of a mouth, the aerodynamics of Deidara's hawk worked quite well, and he was able to evade the Doton technique. Deidara's mouth curled into a manic smile as he saw his chance. All of the blo-_all of the crickets_, he told his mind forcefully, were now arranged evenly over Manda's body.

"_Kibaku Nendo: Aka Matsu__!_" (**Exploding Clay: Red Pine**)

The cricket blobs exploded, streams of fire shooting out. For a second of fleeting beauty, it truly looked as if fiery pines were growing out of his monstrous enemy, and as Deidara's hand mouths absentmindedly ate up some more clay from his waist pouch, he looked on with glee. This, after all, was what he lived for: his art.

The needles of fire weren't just for show, of course. Deidara knew from experience that Orochimaru's summons had nearly fireproof scales. The idea was that some of the probing needles would hit under the scales, hurting the rising king of snakes quite a bit.

It seemed to be working. Manda writhed with pain, his howls echoing across Hebikyokoku. Deidara smirked for a second, but his smirk froze.

Was it just him, or was it that the howls seemed a bit overdramatic for a few burns?

Suddenly a section of 'Manda' crumbled, and Deidara cursed as he realized the snake had shed its skin. The howls were probably some sort of simple sound genjutsu. He cursed yet again as the real Manda shot out of the ground, propelling itself with amazing power into the air to snap up Deidara and his clay bird. Deidara had to gasp. The snake had managed to become completely airborne!

Pushing out as much chakra as he could from his feet, Deidara leapt off his ride, quickly summoning another bird. His control was slipping; this one's wings were asymmetrical, and it could barely stay in the air.

Turning, Deidara saw the jaws of the giant purple serpent close with predatory decisiveness around his previous ride. He smirked. Hunger was not its friend. Two new creations were released from his palms as the snake bit down. This time, he had gone for an extremely simple glider design, deciding to focus on the C-2 aspect rather than the aesthetic.

The two gliders homed in on Manda's eyes. Deidara knew that it would be a bad idea to damage them if he was to make up with the former prince, but it seemed as if knocking out the snake would be too difficult for him to manage.

Manda spat venom.

It shouldn't have been surprising at all, but as Deidara's faulty bird banked to avoid the attack, he saw one of his gliders explode in the stream. Additionally, the bird suffered a fizzing hole through its tail. The other glider managed to reach Manda's head, and with a quick "Katsu!" the snake was sent hurtling to the ground, one side of its head smoking.

With the tail gone, Deidara was forced to land, and he did so far from Manda, cautious in case of any tricks. Dismounting, Deidara walked closer to the scaled monster, aware that at any moment it could-

- the snake reared up, and baring its fangs, struck at Deidara.

Jumping back, the boy summoned up the last of his chakra.

Far in the recesses of Manda's throat, Deidara's first beakless bird expanded, clogging up the snake's throat. As Manda suddenly suffocated, Deidara made a few other hand seals, and the bird began propelling itself back toward the snake's mouth, using its wings. At this point, the snake completely forgot about attacking Deidara, and instead focused on getting the now hazardous clay out of its system. The blonde chuckled a bit. The snake still had a lot to learn before it became Orochimaru's fearsome pet. If he were fighting THAT Manda, he wouldn't have a chance. Fortunately, he was fighting an immature version, a version with no logic, no class, one that had probably just returned from a battle, and one concussed from his C-2 attack.

Speaking of which…

Still forming a few seals to keep the bird moving, Deidara moved to check on the snake's left eye. The eye was damaged, but it actually did not look wasted. An armored transparent scale had covered it at the last second, and though the scale was now shattered and the eye bloody, the chakra-charged environment of Hebikyokoku would surely heal it with time.

The bird was now at Manda's mouth, and he was trying to spit it out. The edges of the wings fizzed as they melted from, as impossible as it seemed, acidic venom. It really was fortunate that the bird could just keep expanding, in spite of this.

"This is what you get for being a glutton, yeah! Never had your meal blow up on you, have you!? Well, let me teach you-" -the snake writhed and it seemed as if its eyes widened- "-THAT ART IS A BANG, YEAH! KATSU!"

The snake unhinged its jaws at the last minute to minimize damage, but the blast was sure to knock the snake unconscious anyway. It would be the equivalent of a sledgehammer blow from the inside of the mouth.

The boy and the snake, one battered beyond belief, one extremely pissed off at his utter failure of a chakra system, both fell to the ground. The snake was unconscious almost instantly, but Deidara just lay there, exhausted. He wasn't completely out this time, but he was close.

He felt a tail on his hand and the cold rush of reptilian energy entered his body.

* * *

It took a while for Deidara to be able to stand again and even longer before Manda woke up. The large snake writhed for a bit, but it had calmed down significantly. Of course, there was also the huge mound of earth that had immobilized it (a high class Doton trapping technique Deidara had performed with the help of some of the higher-class summons).

With the help of the other vipers, Deidara explained Naga's death, and he even spouted some cheesy lines about how death came to all things, quoted shamelessly from old man Tsuchikage. Of course, he left out the bits about "old people want to die anyway because their backs hurt" and "old people want to die anyway because their hips hurt", and all comments of that sort. It was scant comfort in Deidara's opinion, so he was surprised when, after a bit of musing, Manda actually accepted Naga's death.

This apparently did NOT mean forgiveness for the destruction of Manda's teeth and his left eye. However, after Deidara had assured the prince that they would heal in time and not a single one of the other snakes seemed to be too sorry about the loss, Manda was forced to bear it in relative silence.

The conclusion to the fiasco was that Manda accepted his title as king of snakes with far less violence than what Deidara suspected had happened in the original timeline. Another extremely convenient development was that all questions of Deidara's involvement with time travel were averted, as most of the snakes respected and possibly feared him for what he had done to calm their new king.

The final dismissal from Hebikyokoku gathered a much larger audience than Deidara was comfortable with, and as he stood in front of Manda he couldn't help but feel the nervousness that he had felt in the presence of Naga. A few curt words, an extremely intimidating warning against summoning Manda himself except in case of dire need, and Deidara was dismissed.

* * *

Unlike his entrance into Hebikyokoku, Deidara landed on his feet in the human world, and quite a lucky thing too, or else he would have fallen face first into a shallow pool. Looking down, he saw a reflection of himself and his new outfit, courtesy of his hosts. A loose black poncho traditional to new snake-using shinobi covered his shoulders, hiding his old fishnet shirt. His hair was now tied back into a ponytail by twine, and his bangs looked almost as long as they were when he was an adult. His pants had been replaced, and were now made of a white and fibrous material, complimented by a snakeskin belt adorned with pouches of various sizes. Most held clay, though a few held snake-summoning tattoos and standard ninja equipment.

He made a final adjustment by tilting his head to one side and donning a wicked grin.

_Oh, world, look out. I'm back with a bang, yeah!_

* * *

**AN**: Sorry for the long lag before this update. I've just moved to a residential high school, and our workload is a bit on the fat and heavy side.

Read a bit of Terry Pratchett and took an English class between the third and fourth chapter, so my writing style will be a tiny bit different. Do tell me if it ticks with you better. The clock motif WILL continue, Deidara is finally going to be pitted against opponents he can reasonably expect to OWN, and of course some beloved canon characters are going to make a scene. .

I don't have anyone editing, so if you point out some mistakes that would be much appreciated.

Oh, and Dei-kun will be really annoyed later, because almost all of Hebikyokoku knows his time travel secret, and this Manda bears a grudge against him now.


End file.
